The Lloyd's of London building inspired the joke that the insurance market started in a coffee house and ended up in a percolator. It has also been described as an oil rig, Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, a life support machine – and an eyesore. But the Richard Rogers-designed building, home to the world's oldest insurance market since 1986, has been voted London's favourite 1980s building.

In a survey conducted by Lloyd's comparing it with other buildings from the 1980s, the "inside-out" building in the City – staircases, lifts and pipes are on the outside leaving an uncluttered space inside – beat 1 London Bridge, Broadgate, the MI6 building and Tower 42.

Nearly 40% of people polled named the external lifts as their favourite feature, the first of their kind in Britain, closely followed by the exposed pipes and ducts which if laid out would stretch from the City to Milton Keynes.

"It's a fantastic building, and very efficient inside," said Lloyd's chief executive Richard Ward. But he added: "It's a costly building to maintain because everything is on the outside and exposed to the elements."

Lloyd's, which was built after the Centre Pompidou, designed by Renzo Piano and Rogers, in Paris, is expected to be listed in October.